05 Feb Brain’s Protective Blood Barrier Becomes Leaky With Age

MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
V. Zlokovic, MD, PhD
Professor and Chair
Department of Physiology and Biophysics
Keck School of Medicine of USC.

Medical Research: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings?

Dr. Zlokovic: Our team used high-resolution imaging of the living human brain to show for the first time that the brain’s protective blood barrier becomes leaky with age, starting at the hippocampus, a critical learning and memory center that is damaged by Alzheimer’s disease.

Medical Research: What should clinicians and patients take away from your report?

Dr. Zlokovic: The study indicates it may be possible to use brain scans to detect changes in blood vessels in the hippocampus before they cause irreversible damage leading to dementia in neurological disorders characterized by progressive loss of memory, cognition and learning.

Medical Research: What recommendations do you have for future research as a result of this study?

Dr. Zlokovic: In my humble opinion, individuals with symptoms of mild dementia on neuropsychological tests, people at genetic risk who appear cognitively normal, and individuals who may be at risk for familial Alzheimer’s should consider having a brain scan to detect leakage of the blood brain barrier. Symptoms of mild dementia should raise a red flag, while those at genetic risk may be asymptomatic APOE4 carriers for late onset Alzheimer’s, which is not so rare — APOE4 affects up to 25 percent of the population — or presenilin 1 mutants carriers.

Citation:

Berislav V. Zlokovic et al. Blood-Brain Barrier Breakdown in the Aging Human Hippocampus. Neuron, January 2015 DOI: 10.1016/j.neuron.2014.12.032

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V. Zlokovic, MD, PhD (2015). Brain’s Protective Blood Barrier Becomes Leaky With Age MedicalResearch.com

Last Updated on February 5, 2015 by Marie Benz MD FAAD